These famous german stars have left us

17 december 2025 : Rosa von Praunheim (83, Filmmaker)

The film director and LGBTQ activist was born in 1942 in a prison in Riga/ Latvia, under the civil name Holger Mischwitzky (according to his official website). After he had dropped out from high school and his arts studies, he published his first short movie « Von Rosa von Praunheim » in 1967. His pen name (and first movie title) refers on the one side to the city disctrict Praunheim in Frankfurt, where he had lived as a teenager, and on the other side to the « pink sign » for homosexuals in Nazi-concentration camps.  

In 1970 he released the successful movie « The bed sausage ». Done in the so-called « camp style » it tells the love story of a german heterosexual couple, with the means of parody and absurdity.

In his 150 movies the artists often treated subjects related to homo- and transsexuality. « My Mother » shows the search for his biological mother, after he had learned at the age of 58 years, that he had been adopted. He made as well several films about cities like New York and Berlin – sometimes with a mixture of the subjects city and sexuality, as for example in the interesting documentary « The boys from Bahnhof Zoo ».

Homosexuality among men was forbidden in Germany until 1969, according to the article 175 of the penal code. Homosexuality became then unpunished, the final abrogation of the article was only done in 1994.

The filmmaker was one of Germany’s most notorious LGBTQ activists. But his actions were ambivalent, as is described in an article of the HIV-magazine of the german Aids Federation.

Concerning the Aids phenomenon he fell out with representatives of aid organisations, and he got noticed with exaggerated propositions for « Safer Sex ». The director, who « was afraid, that Aids might be transferred by the steam in gay saunas », explained as well his unauthorized outing of the TV showmaster Alfred Biolek and of the comedian Hape Kerkeling by referring to his personal committment for Aids prevention:

« My outing of gay celebrities was a desperate scream at the peak of the Aids crisis. » (Rosa von Praunheim on his homepage) 

Rosa von Praunheim, who worked as well as a lecturer at the movie academy « Konrad Wolf » in Potsdam, got the german Federal Cross of Merit in 2015.  

16 July 2025 : Claus Peymann (88, Stage Director)

Since 1970, Claus Peymann was one of the most notorious theatre directors in the germanspeaking world, together with Peter Stein, who has exactly the same age.

He worked in particular at the theatres in Stuttgart, Bochum, the Burgtheater in Vienna (1986 – 1999) and the Berliner Ensemble in Berlin (1999 – 2017).

Peymann often staged the plays of contemporary austrian authors such as Peter Turrini, Elfriede Jelinek, Peter Handke (Offending the Audience) and Thomas Bernhard (Heldenplatz).

The theatre manager, who was born in Bremen, had as well the reputation of an agitator.

In 1977, when he was a theatre director in Stuttgart, he collected money to pay the dentist of the RAF terrorist Gudrun Ensslin, who was incarcerated in the same city. In 2007 he offered an internship as stagehand to Christian Klar, another RAF terrorist.

Another scandal concerned a theatre night with the austrian artist Otto Mühl in 1998. Mühl, who was the leader of a commune with several hundreds of members too, had gotten a prison sentence for the rape of minors in the early 1990ies. Shortly after his release from jail, Peymann allowed Mühl to perform in the Burgtheater of Vienna.

Back then, the stage director explained in a brash way, that for him artistic freedom does not end with a penal condemnation. That’s a true argument. However, Mühl was not at all a recognized author, his artistic merits were in the area of painting.

Mühl’s theatre night was a public presentation of his own – apparently quite complacent – view on his prison time. At first he read himself a text about his experience in jail, then his so-called « small dramatic play » about his conviction was recited. The stage director Einar Schleef and the playwright Peter Turrini (who had been himself a member of the commune) acted as lecturers.

Peymann, born in 1937 as the son of a « SA-Obersturmbannführer », identified himself during all his life as a left-wing intellectual and pacifist :

« I’m immune concerning war. Don’t try to sell me war, or an army, or all this fuss. With the skimmed milk of the post-war period, we have literally absorbed pacifism. » (Claus Peymann, discussion with Günter Gaus, 1998)

The phrase « Theatre is more beautiful than war » can be found in many obituaries following Peymann’s passing. It was featured on the theatre poster promoting « Die Hermannsschlacht (The Battle of Hermann) » (by Heinrich von Kleist), staged by Peymann in 1982 at the Schauspielhaus Bochum.

Since 2022, the interviews with the theatre expert revealed some scepticism concerning the possibilities of the political theatre. But his pacifistic conviction persisted, and the deception about the Green Party (a member of the federal german government from 2021 to 2025) was huge : 

« It’s terrible that a party, that seemed to be pacifistic, speaks about heavy weapons, light weapons, 100 000 bullets of ammunition, 70 tanks, as if it was just an everyday affair. « (Claus Peymann in june 2022)  

The theatre manager left the terrestrial stage in the city of Berlin, after a long and severe disease. He leaves behind his wife, his significant other, and a son.

12 Mai 2025 : Nadja Abd El Farrag (60, Reality-TV-Star)

« In Germany, Nadja Abd El Farrag (*1965) is probably as notorious as Angela Merkel » wrote Kerstin Herrnkind in a Stern-article from 2016. There is a reason for this notoriety – and its name is Dieter Bohlen.

Dieter Bohlen (*1954) is maybe Germany’s most successful living pop musician and music producer. In the 1990ies Bohlen had quite a certain macho image, which could be freely nourished in the media back then. In 1996 he was in the show of the popular talkmaster Harald Schmidt and gave a report about his ultrashort marriage with Verona Feldbusch. The young woman had left him after just one month, and accused him even of having beaten her. In this moment of distress Bohlen’s former girlfriend Nadja moved in again with him. « Otherwise I would be completely alone » described a grinning Bohlen the situation.

Nadja, whose nickname was « Naddel », spent about 12 years with Bohlen, but without a marriage certificate. The daughter of a sudanese father and a german mother grew up in Hamburg, dropped out of high school and worked as a shop assistant. During the time with Bohlen she was sometimes a background singer in his group, but there was no more self-realization during those years, be it professionally or personally.

« Naddel has accepted a career as an accessory « thinks the Stern-journalist Herrnkind. Bohlen left Naddel in 2001 again for a younger woman. Naddel, now in her late 30ies, did not really know what she should do in life.

The likable and candid woman from Hamburg rambled through various Trash-TV-formats, temporarily she jobbed as an elderly care nurse or waitress.

If the revenues from these activities were too little, and/ or if Naddel lived in a too luxuriant way, cannot be analyzed with the superficial press articles about her. Just as the concrete start date of her alcohol addiction, which – according to the ZDF – existed already during her relationship with Bohlen. Naddel’s media appearances focused more and more on her personal financial and alcohol problems.

The formerly attractive dark-skinned entertainer informed in 2018 about a liver cirrhosis. An organ failure ended now her life in a hospital in Hamburg.

Dieter Bohlen, whose fortune is estimated at 130 milllion EUR, informed on social media on his sadness about Naddel’s death.

15 February 2025 : Gerhart Baum (92, Former Minister of the Interior)

February 1945 : The air raids against the german city of Dresden cause 25 000 fatalities. One of the survivors is Gerhart Baum, 12 years old back then. After a short stay in Bavaria, the war orphan and his mother move to Cologne, where Baum earns his attorney diploma in 1961. During the next ten years he works for West Germany’s federal employer association.

From 1972 to 1994 the politician of the FDP party, who had a reputation as being a « leftwing liberal », was a member of the federal german parliament.

The decade between 1972 and 1982 was certainly the most challenging in his active political career. It was marked by attacks committed by palestinian and german terrorists. As a secretary of state within the ministry of the interior, Baum witnessed the assault on the Olympic Games in 1972, and the crimes by the RAF group, which culminated in the so-called « Deutscher Herbst 1977 « (German Autumn 1977), with the hijacking of the Lufthansa airplane « Landshut ». From 1978 until 1982 he was finally minister of the interior under chancellor Helmut Schmidt (SPD).

In 1982, the social-liberal coalition between the SPD and FDP ended. The FDP joined a new government coalition with the CDU/ CSU party. Baum refused to become the minister for justice in the new government led by chancellor Helmut Kohl. 

Due to his diligence in the area of human rights and civil liberties, Baum enjoyed a high reputation. At the beginning of the years 2000 the lawyer was a UN Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in Sudan.

Together with his FDP colleagues Burkhard Hirsch and Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Baum worked on an improvement of the privacy of german citizens towards state authorities.

After the 9/11 attacks in the USA the german governement (SPD and Greens) had implemented a new air security law, which initially allowed to shoot down an airplane if it was hijacked by terrorists. Baum did a successful constitutional complaint against this part of the law. After the judgment of the german constitutional court the respective article 14 was modified : now it allows as « ultimate ratio » only the firing of warning shots and the forcing of a landing, but no longer a shooting down.  

Baum had been as well against a prohibition of the small german party Die Heimat (former name : NPD). This party is criticized because of its ties with Neonazis, according to the Constitutional Court of Germany it even has strategic aims that are in contradiction with the constitution. Gerhart Baum said in 2012, that a prohibition was not the right means to fight the party. The constitutional court confirmed this view, and declared finally that there were no sufficient elements to justify an interdiction of the party (according to article 21 of the constitution).

As an attorney, Baum had mandates of national and international dimension. Among others he represented the families of victims of big traffic accidents : the  Ramstein air Show disaster and the Lockerbie attack from 1988, the Concorde accident from 2000, or the Duisburg loveparade 2010.

Gerhart Baum was never afraid of a dialogue with his opponents. He discussed for example with the former RAF terrorists Horst Mahler and Peter-Jürgen Boock.

During the Covid-Pandemic according to the WHO definition, the former minister, who was already 88 years old back then, supported the restrictive measures of the german government. It is regrettable, that Gerhart Baum, who has big merits as a keen-witted and determined defender of civil rights, did not speak with critical medical experts from Germany such as Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi or Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg.

Gerhart Baum is survived by his second wife and three children.

1 February 2025 : Horst Köhler (81, Former President of Germany)

The economist and politician (CDU) was born in 1943 in Skierbieszow in Poland. His parents were farmers. In 1944, the family fled at first to a city close to Leipzig. Before the national uprising in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) of 1953 the family fled again, and came finally to the city Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg.

After the completion of economic studies at the university of Tübingen, Köhler worked at first as university assistant. From 1976 on the economist had been a civil servant in the federal ministry of economy and in the office of the governor of the state Schleswig-Holstein. Köhler participated – as a secretary of state under the federal minister of finance Theo Waigel – in the negotiations concerning the Maastricht-Treaty and the german reunification.

From 1998 until 2000 the economist was the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). From 2000 until 2004 he held the position of the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC. 

During his mandate with the IMF, Köhler advanced the debt relief of developing countries. In 2000 he published a declaration that guaranteed 22 countries in Africa and Latin America an additional debt cancellation, which allowed – together with already existing debt relief programs – a debt reduction by up to 66% per country (Enhanced HIPC Initiative). Among the beneficiaries of this program were african countries such as Senegal, Benin or Moçambique, and latin american countries such as Bolivia and Nicaragua.

From 2004 until 2010 Köhler was the President of Germany (Bundespräsident). In 2010, when returning from Afghanistan, where german soldiers were deployed back then, he gave an interview, in which he said the following phrase : 

« Military missions can be necessary too to serve our interests, such as free trade routes for example. » (Horst Koehler in 2010)

Probably Köhler did not articulate this phrase with regard to the Afghanistan mission, but as a general consideration. But the political opposition used this phrase for attacks. The Green politician Jürgen Trittin (a former federal minister) for example spoke of « gunboat politics ».

Fact 1 : Article 87 a of the german constitution stipulates, that the military forces can be used for defense and for other purposes that are explicitely allowed for by the constitution. Article 24 allows the transfer of sovereign powers to intergovernmental organisms and the integration into a system of mutual collective security.

Fact 2 : Since at least 2008 there are military missions of the german army (Bundeswehr) corresponding to Köhler’s reflection, for example against pirates at the horn of Africa. The german participation in the Atalanta Operation of EU Navfor is on the legal base of the article 24 of the german constitution and various international law (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea from 1982, various resolutions of the UN-Security Council, and various decisions of the Council of the EU.)

Back then Köhler was so much offended by the superficial media reactions to his interview, that – as the first president in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany – he resigned from office. He justified this step with « lacking respect » of his critics towards his position. This was not a smart justification. Because the validity of a message does not depend on the person that communicates it, but on the question, if it is based on objective facts and solid arguments, or not.

In the years after his resignation the former president was an adviser for the African Development Bank (2016 until 2017) and a special envoy for the UN for the Western Sahara (2017 until 2019).

Horst Köhler died after a short and intense disease in Berlin. He is survived by his wife, with whom he had been married since 1969, and two children.

Here are the books about Mister Köhler.

24 august 2024 : Christoph Daum (70, football coach)

Daum, who had a diploma as a teacher for sports and geography, was a very popular coach in Germany. He worked in several countries and won national championships in Germany (1992), Austria (2003) and Turkey (1995, 2004, 2005). From 2016 to 2017 he was responsible for the national soccer team of Romania, joining the list of national team coachs with a foreign nationality .

 A cocaine affair in 2000 cost him his next career step as national team manager of Germany – a job that was done back then by Rudi Völler. Daum had a public conflict too with the notorious manager of FC Bayern Munich, Uli Hoeness, but the two men had finally made peace.

Having been a moderate smoker for 38 years, the football teacher got diagnosed with lung cancer in 2022. Christoph Daum died of this disease in Cologne, a city where he had worked during many years with the local football club. 

25 march 2024 : Fritz Wepper (82, actor)

In Fritz Wepper’s biography there are some words that have a special meaning.

War. When Fritz was three years old, his father – a soldier of the german Wehrmacht – went missing in action. In 1959, now 18 years old, he did his first important screen role in an anti-war-movie. « The bridge » by Bernhard Wicki tells the fate of a group of teenage boys that fight at the end of World War II. And in 2013 he learned that his partner in the Derrick series, the late Horst Tappert (1923 – 2008), had been in the Waffen-SS during that war.

Hollywood. In 1972 the actor participated in « Cabaret », an american movie that got 8 oscars one year later. Liza Minnelli, who played the female main role, became a friend for Wepper for the rest of his life. The german actor told repeatedly in interviews, that back then, he was close to a potential Hollywood career. He said that he had preliminary talks with american producers, but it would have been necessary to interrupt or end his participation in his first german TV police series (Der Kommissar) – a decision he did not took.

Derrick. During 24 years Wepper played the role of inspector Harry Klein, who helped Chief Inspector Stefan Derrick to resolve murder cases. In total, there were 281 episodes of this popular TV series, which was broadcasted in 102 countries worldwide. Horst Tappert, who interpreted Derrick, was certainly the more charismatic actor of the two. Wepper was the « eternal assistant » in this series, even in those episodes, in which the script focuses on his character (as for example in « Coffee with Beate »), but he enjoyed nevertheless high popularity.

Bavaria. A subtle nuance of the Munich-based Derrick series in its german version is the question of dialects. Horst Tappert (Derrick), a native from North Rhine Westphalia, speaks exclusively standard German. The bavarian dialect is to find in general with subordinate police officers and working class or rural people. Inspector Klein (played by Wepper, a native from Munich), spoke occasionally in this dialect too. Bavaria remained important for Wepper’s second big series too – Um Himmels Willen (Oh my god). In this cheerful entertainment series that was produced from 2002 until 2021, Wepper plays a city mayor that has to deal with funny situations around a local monastery. The main film location is a beautiful bavarian city too – Landshut. 

Wepper, who had had heart surgery and cancer treatments during his last years, died in a hospice. He is survived by his second wife and two daughters.

20 february 2024 : Andreas Brehme (63, football player)

The defender had his big moment of glory when he made the decisive penalty kick against Argentina in the World Cup Final 1990 in Italy. This 1 :0 made Germany – led by Franz Beckenbauer, who just died in january 2024 – the new World Champion.

Andy Brehme won as well the Bundesliga Championship with the clubs FC Kaiserslautern and FC Bayern. Italy was a very important place for him : when he defeated the Argentinians in 1990, he was as well playing with Inter Mailand.

Brehme died from a cardiac arrest. He is mourned by 2 sons and his companion.   

23 january 2024 : Frank Farian (82, music producer)

Daddy Cool is dead : Frank Farian, the musical daddy of Boney M and Milli Vanilli. As a record producer he had worked as well with many other artists, such as Stevie Wonder or Meat Loaf.

Franz Reuther, as was his civil name, was born in 1941. His youth was similar to that of many other children of his generation :

« I never got to know my father, he died as a soldier before I was born. My mother was my personal « Trümmerfrau » (german expression for the tough women of postwar Germany). She removed all rocks and provided for everything I needed, although we had no money. » (Frank Farian)

Farian became a cook and toured as well with his own Rock n’Roll Band. Success came, when he focused on music producing.

When he created the highflying pop group Boney M in the 1970ies, he combined the right ingredients just as a smart cook would do : beautiful exotic female singers, flamboyant costumes, and professionally mixed disco sounds that met the taste of the public of that period.

In 1989 Farian repeated the Boney M recipe in an even cheekier way, by producing Milli Vanilli. He had spotted a promising song that he wanted to pimp.

« Girl you know it’s true » is Farian’s mixture of the vocal recording of american singers, his own mixing desk enhancement, and a playback music video done by two handsome guys from the Munich breakdance scene. But the success became bigger than expected, and the participants became kind of trapped in their own trickery.

The story of Milli Vanilli is tragic and tells a lot about the music business of the time. The two presumed singers were the Frenchman Fabrice Morvan (*1966) and the German Robert Pilatus (*1964). The deception was officially revealed after they had received a Grammy Award in the USA. Though : everybody could hear that in interviews Morvan spoke English with a strong french accent, while Pilatus had a strong german accent – and this did not match at all with their Milli-Vanilli-Hits.

For the general public, the main frauds were the two young men. Their downfall was deep. Pilatus had serious problems with drugs and with the law. In 1998 he was found dead in a hotel in Frankfurt. Morvan managed to get back to a normal life. Having kept quite a juvenile look, he has proven himself in the meantime that he can sing, and gives again concerts with the Vanilli-songs – now sung by himself.

Frank Farian, who has sold 800 million discs, died in Miami.

7 january 2024 : Franz Beckenbauer (78, football star)

Beckenbauer is one of Germany’s most popular soccer stars. As a player, he won the World Cup 1970, the European Championship 1972, several german championships with the clubs FC Bayern and Hamburger SV, and several american championships with Cosmos New York – where he played together with the brazilian soccer legend Pele.  Beckenbauer’s field position was that of a defender, respectively that of a so-called « libero ».

His track record as a trainer is very impressive too. With the german national team, Beckenbauer won the World Cup of 1990. In 1991 he won the french championship with Olympique Marseille. With his old club FC Bayern he became german champion in 1994. 

Franz Beckenbauer held important management positions in the soccer world too, as president of the club FC Bayern, as vice-president of the german football association (DFB), and as head of the german committee that succeeded in bringing the 2006 World Cup to Germany.

Towards the end of his life, the german star, who also had the nickname « Der Kaiser » (The Emperor) had several health problems. According to the german journal Ran.de Beckenbauer suffered from Parkinson and Dementia. The football star was married three times and had 5 children.

These french stars died recently

Which famous Austrians died during the last months ?